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Re: A Practical Question. this is stuff that hopefully none of us needs for years and years, but it is something to ponder. one of the speakers at the Portland OR Parkinson's Symposium last weekend, a social-worker-turned-disabilities-lawyer, was asked to explain why a mid-stage woman was denied disability benefits under US Medicare. His answer is that at it's best the system is stacked against people with an ongoing illness because in order to cope, people develop an attitude that the glass is half- full, not half-empty (i.e. wendy tebay's great letter yesterday). so when their neurologist asks how they are doing, many john-wayne-it, saying life is good, they are coping. and when the time comes to apply for disability benefits, medicare requests the neuro's notes (which they apparently do) and sees years of i'm-ok reports and rules no disability. his advice is to be aware of the criteria used by medicare to determine disability status and to make sure your neuro is aware of those too and document them. of course with newt and his boys at work in washington, there may not be any medicare left, but that's a separate issue. pete & gin morgan